2011 ELECTIONS: SYLVA SET TO LEAD JONATHAN FOR PRESIDENT CAMPAIGNS

By NBF News

Governor Timipre Sylva of Bayelsa State is set to be in the forefront of the 2011 Jonathan for presidency campaigns. Sylva, believed to be close to the famed Yar' Adua cabal and perceived to have worked against the emergence of Jonathan then as acting president. is poised to lead the campaigns to ensure that he corrects whatever misconceptions that he had created in people.

According to investigations, emissaries from Bayelsa State led by the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Werinipre Seibarugu and principal members of the House had visited Aso-Rock Villa pleading with the president's wife, Mrs. Patience Jonathan to forgive Sylva for any wrong doing.

Though she is still angry but feelers indicate that she is already reconsidering her stand against the governor.

Daily Sun learnt that the development made Sylva to decide to play a prominent role in the Jonathan for President in 2011 to erase whatever doubts the Jonathan camp still had about him. Sources said Sylva's mind is made up and had confided in close aides that he was going to do everything to support Jonathan in his bid to clinch the 2011 presidency.

The same message he sent to all members of the state executive council at their weekly meeting where he urged them to close ranks and give Jonathan a solid home support. At a book launch organized by the Chairman, Editorial Board of The Nation Newspapers, Mr. Sam Omatseye, Sylva, publicly drummed support for Jonathan by advocating for a Niger Delta president in 2011.

To convince those doubting his new stand, Sylva, at the Democracy Day rally in Yenagoa, called on the rest of Nigerians to give Jonathan a chance to contest. He disclosed that Bayelsa, being the home state of Jonathan, had already given him the mandate to go and contest. Sylva explained that there is need to give Jonathan a fresh mandate since he is now completing the tenure of Yar'Adua.

Said he: 'At this juncture, I would like to give voice to the raging question of the President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan's return to office in 2011. As a state, we have given him the mandate to go ahead and run, even though, he has not declared interest in the presidential race yet. He has our full support to deliver on quality leadership for Nigeria. As acting president, he did very well and we are confident that he will continue to do well at the helm of affairs of our country.

'I appeal to fellow Nigerians in all parts of the country to look beyond the political indulgences of the moment and consider the serious fact that since independence, 50 years ago, it is only the Niger Delta region, which, incidentally, is the cash cow of the federation that has not tasted presidential power.